February 16, 2014

Design-abilties Blog Hop: Rose Postcard Sympathy

Welcome to the third Design-abilities Blog Hop! When the Spellbinders® Blog Team wanted to do something fresh, fun, and creative to bring our team together, we decided to have a blog hop on the sixteenth of every other month, linking to each designer. This blog hop is just for creative inspiration; we are not sponsored by Spellbinders Paper Arts®. Sometimes we might not all be able to participate, but we would still encourage you to visit all of the Blog Team Members and check out their blogs. You will find a variety of ideas for die cutting, papercrafting, mixed media, DIY projects, jewelry, home decor, lots of tutorials, and techniques.

My card today is a sympathy card. We recently lost a dear family member after a two-year fight against cancer, and I wanted a special card for his sweetheart. I often heard him tell his doctors and nurses that he'd been "married to the best woman in the world for sixty-three years!" That kind of love is pretty amazing, and I was blessed to see it modeled up close and personal for the last eighteen years.

Before stamping a JustRite Rose Postcard Cling Background stamp for my focal image, I used a Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles die template on Kraft cardstock to cut, emboss, and mask. I stamped the rose postcard in Memento Rich Cocoa ink, leaving the die template in place while I stamped to protect/mask the edges of the kraft cardstock. While I love to color, I wanted to try just loosely airbrushing this image. Yep, that's a trick for somebody with control issues. . . ;-) I used only the three Copic markers shown above, along with my Copic Airbrush System, to airbrush the background. You can see in the next picture that I used a white Prismacolor pencil to add a few highlights to my mid-toned cardstock.

I also airbrushed a second Resplendent Rectangles die cut for the card base. TIP: I use a pretty heavy cardstock for my card bases, so I sometimes have a hard time cutting through two folded layers of a card base, especially when I am using detailed dies. For this card base, I cut two separate cream base layers, then scored the bottom one about 1/2" from the top. Then I glued that half inch at the top to create a tent fold. That sounds more complicated than it was--just cut two layers, score the bottom one so that you get a nice fold, and glue. Your fold is 1/2" down from the top of the card. I dyed some natural seam binding to coordinate with the roses and threaded it through the slots of the die cut. Stick pins are both by Maya Road.

I'd love it if you had time to visit my blog team friends as well, though not everyone is able to participate each month. Thank you for visiting today!

Comments

Design-abilties Blog Hop: Rose Postcard Sympathy

Welcome to the third Design-abilities Blog Hop! When the Spellbinders® Blog Team wanted to do something fresh, fun, and creative to bring our team together, we decided to have a blog hop on the sixteenth of every other month, linking to each designer. This blog hop is just for creative inspiration; we are not sponsored by Spellbinders Paper Arts®. Sometimes we might not all be able to participate, but we would still encourage you to visit all of the Blog Team Members and check out their blogs. You will find a variety of ideas for die cutting, papercrafting, mixed media, DIY projects, jewelry, home decor, lots of tutorials, and techniques.

My card today is a sympathy card. We recently lost a dear family member after a two-year fight against cancer, and I wanted a special card for his sweetheart. I often heard him tell his doctors and nurses that he'd been "married to the best woman in the world for sixty-three years!" That kind of love is pretty amazing, and I was blessed to see it modeled up close and personal for the last eighteen years.

Before stamping a JustRite Rose Postcard Cling Background stamp for my focal image, I used a Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles die template on Kraft cardstock to cut, emboss, and mask. I stamped the rose postcard in Memento Rich Cocoa ink, leaving the die template in place while I stamped to protect/mask the edges of the kraft cardstock. While I love to color, I wanted to try just loosely airbrushing this image. Yep, that's a trick for somebody with control issues. . . ;-) I used only the three Copic markers shown above, along with my Copic Airbrush System, to airbrush the background. You can see in the next picture that I used a white Prismacolor pencil to add a few highlights to my mid-toned cardstock.

I also airbrushed a second Resplendent Rectangles die cut for the card base. TIP: I use a pretty heavy cardstock for my card bases, so I sometimes have a hard time cutting through two folded layers of a card base, especially when I am using detailed dies. For this card base, I cut two separate cream base layers, then scored the bottom one about 1/2" from the top. Then I glued that half inch at the top to create a tent fold. That sounds more complicated than it was--just cut two layers, score the bottom one so that you get a nice fold, and glue. Your fold is 1/2" down from the top of the card. I dyed some natural seam binding to coordinate with the roses and threaded it through the slots of the die cut. Stick pins are both by Maya Road.

I'd love it if you had time to visit my blog team friends as well, though not everyone is able to participate each month. Thank you for visiting today!

My Art Journal Blog

FTC Disclosure Statement

In the spirit of full disclosure, I currently work as a freelance designer in some capacity for the following companies: Imagination International, Inc. (Copic Markers), JustRite Papercraft, and Spellbinders Paper Arts. While I am compensated by these companies, either monetarily or in product, I maintain the freedom as an independent designer to say what I truly think of their products. I will never recommend something that I don't personally use and enjoy.